Bhubaneswar: The Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) office was on Friday moved out of its former president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s residence.The new WFI office is located in New Delhi’s Hari Nagar area, PTI reported quoting a source.
The Union Sports ministry suspended the newly-formed WFI panel under president Sanjay Singh on December 24, three days after he was elected as the federation’s head.
One of the reasons for WFI suspension was running of the federation’s office from the residence of Brij Bhushan, who was at the centre of a sexual-harassment case brought by seven female wrestlers, including a minor.
“The business of the federation is being run from the premises controlled by former office-bearers (Brij Bhushan) — which is also the alleged premises wherein sexual harassment of the players have been alleged and present(ly) the court is hearing the matter,” the ministry had stated in its letter.
The ministry also observed that the new body was working under the “complete control of former (WFI) office-bearers,” which violated National Sports Code guidelines.
Leading wrestlers including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat protested for months demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan.
After Brij Bhushan’s close aide Sanjay won the WFI election beating former wrestler Anita Sheoran on December 21, Sakshi said she would retire from wrestling, Bajrang returned his Padma Shri award and Vinesh her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award, saying they did not want any close associate of the BJP MP to run the federation.
The Sports ministry advised Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to form a three-member ad-hoc panel to run wrestling.
